Heinrich Brüning

Brüning started out in politics in the Weimar Republic as a unionist and social policy maker. He took an active role in organizing the “passive resistance” in the Ruhrkampf (Ruhr struggle) as chief executive of the Christian German Union Federation. Brüning served as a Member of the Reichstag from 1924. In 1929, he was elected chairman of the Center Party’s parliamentary group. After Reichskanzler Müller’s Grand Coalition collapsed in 1930, Brüning took on the post of Reichskanzler, setting up a minority government. This marked the beginning of the presidential cabinets, which governed and enacted laws solely on the authority of the Reichspräsident, without consulting the Reichstag. During the economic crisis, Brüning tried to fight the recession with his deflationary policies. In the end, he lost Reichspräsident Hindenburg’s trust. A series of presidential cabinets then followed, ending with the Nazis seizing power.